Postmastectomy breast reconstruction awareness and attitudes in Nigerian women with breast cancer: A descriptive, cross sectional survey

Introduction: Sub-Saharan Africa has a high burden of breast cancer and very low rates of breast reconstruction. This study aimed to determine the awareness of and attitude to breast reconstruction among women with breast cancer who had mastectomy. Methods: A cross-sectional study of women with breast cancer who underwent mastectomy was done. Participants were recruited from September 2020 to January 2021 from the surgical oncology and radio-oncology outpatient clinics of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. A multivariate logistic regression was used to determine predictors of awareness and attitudes to breast reconstruction. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Fifty-one women participated in the study. The mean age was 54.76 (+9.94) years. Most, 30 (58.8%) of them had tertiary level of education, were working, 39 (76.5%) and were married, 41 (80%). Funding for the mastectomies was mainly out-of-pocket 34 (66.7%). Most 37 (72.5%) were not aware that the breast could be reconstructed before their surgery and only one (1.96%) of the women had breast reconstruction. The reason most proffered for declining breast reconstruction was not wanting another surgery 13 (33.3%). The age (odds ratio [OR] 0.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.001–0.33), P = 0.006 of the participants and the educational status (OR 12.50, 95% CI 1.86–84.26), P = 0.009 were significant predictors of awareness of breast reconstruction. None of the variables were significant predictors of positive attitudes to breast reconstruction. Conclusion: There is a very low level of awareness of breast reconstruction. Younger age and tertiary education were significant predictors of awareness of breast reconstruction.